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2.05
Conduct of Meetings A.
Six members
of the Board shall constitute a quorum Iowa
Code § 17A.2(1).
The number of votes required to constitute a majority for a given
purpose shall be a majority of those present, assuming a quorum.
Except where otherwise required by statute, the Board shall
conduct its meetings according to Robert's Rules of Order. B.
Open Meetings The
following language excerpts and paraphrases key provisions applying to
the Board as found in Iowa Code § 21. 1.
All actions and discussion at meetings of the Board
of Regents, committees formally and directly created by the Board of
Regents, and those multi-membered bodies to which the Board or a
president of a university has delegated the responsibility for the
management and control of intercollegiate athletic programs, whether
formal or informal, shall be conducted and executed in open session,
except for the reasons specifically provided in Iowa Code § 21
for holding a closed session. "Meeting",
means a gathering in person or by electronic means, formal or informal,
of a majority of the members of the Board or its committees where there
is deliberation or action upon any matter within the scope of the body's
policy-making duties. Meetings
shall not include a gathering of members of the Board or its committees
for purely ministerial or social purposes when there is no discussion of
policy or no intent to avoid the purposes of this chapter.
"Open
session" means a meeting to which all members of the public have
access. 2.
Meetings of the board or committees shall be
preceded by a public notice of the time, date, and place of each meeting
and a tentative agenda in a manner reasonably calculated to apprise the
public of that information. Such
notice includes advising news media who have filed a request for notice
with the Board or committee and shall be given at least 24 hours prior
to the commencement of any meeting.
The manner of notice and site for the board meeting shall be as
outlined in Iowa Code §
21.4. Any
formally constituted committee
of the Board may conduct a meeting without notice as required in the law
during a lawful meeting of the Board of Regents, a recess in that
meeting, or immediately following the meeting, if the meeting of the
committee is publicly announced at the Board meeting and the subject of
the meeting reasonably coincides with the subjects discussed or acted
upon by the Board. 3.
The Board and every committee governed by Iowa Code
§
21 shall keep minutes of each of its meetings
showing the date, time, place, members present, and the action taken at
each meeting. The minutes
shall show the results of each vote taken, and the vote of each member
present shall be made public at the open session.
The minutes shall be public records open to public inspection. C.
Closed Session 1.
The Board and committees governed by Iowa’s open
meetings law may hold a closed session only by affirmative public vote
of either two-thirds of the members of the body or all of the members
present at the meeting. The
Board or committee may hold a closed session only to the extent a closed
session is necessary for any reason defined in Iowa Code § 21.5.
2.
In addition to reasons defined by Iowa Code §
21.5 for holding a closed session, negotiating
sessions, strategy meetings of public employers or employee
organizations, mediation, and the deliberative process of arbitrators
shall be exempt from the provisions of Chapter 21.
However, the employee organization shall present its initial
bargaining position to the public employer at the first bargaining
session. The public employer shall present its initial bargaining
position to the employee organization at the second bargaining session,
which shall be held no later than two weeks following the first
bargaining session. Both sessions shall be open to the public and
subject to the provisions of the open meetings law. Hearings
conducted by arbitrators shall be open to the public. (Iowa Code
§ 20.17(3)) 3.
The vote of each Board member on the question of
holding the closed session and the reason for holding the closed session
by reference to a specific exemption under the law shall be announced
publicly at the open session and entered into the minutes. The Board shall not discuss any business during a closed session
that does not directly relate to the specific reason announced as
justification for the closed session. 4.
Final action by the Board on any matter
shall be taken in an open session unless some other provision of the Iowa Code expressly permits such actions to be taken in closed
session. 5.
The Board and committees shall keep detailed
minutes of all discussions, persons present, and action occurring in a
closed session and shall also tape record all of the closed
session. The detailed minutes and tape recording of a closed
session shall be sealed and shall not be open to public inspection.
The
Board shall keep the detailed minutes and tape recording of any closed
session for a period of at least one year from the date of the meeting.
A special provision exists, however, for the minutes and tape
recording of a session closed to discuss the purchase of real estate.
These recordings and minutes shall be available for public
examination when the transaction discussed is completed.
D.
Board
Procedures for Holding a Closed Meeting The
procedure for calling a closed session will begin with the president
of the Board determining whether a suggested topic is a proper one for
a closed session in accordance with the reasons given for holding
such a session, as detailed above. The president will notify the
Board in public session that such a request has been made and will
identify by letter or topic the specific exemption for holding a closed
session and then request a roll call vote which, in accordance with the
law, will require an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Board or all
of the members present before the closed session can be approved.
At
the beginning of the closed session, the president will inform the
Board more specifically of the topic of the session. The topic
will not be considered in closed session if one-third of the Board
members present object. The minutes of the regular Board meeting
will reflect the roll call vote for the closed session and the time
at which the closed session began and ended. If the same topic
is continued at another closed session during the same regular
monthly Board meeting, or prior to the next meeting of the Board of
Regents, the president may announce it as a continuation and not require
another roll call vote. E.
Electronic Meetings The Board may
conduct a meeting by electronic means as provided by law. F.
The
business of the institutions shall be presented to the Board by the
institutional executives.
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